SPELLBOUND

The night sky was not as clear as the night before from where the group had settled down. There were smoke-like wisps of mist creeping right at the trees' crowns, covering the thick forest like greyish white blanket.

Without the glowing stones, Evie was certain she would not be able to see anything at all because of the inky-black darkness.

While Elias was preparing her meal and Reed started setting up her tent, Evie approached Zolan who was busy checking on Luc's wound. He seemed to be the worst wounded among the rest of the men. Evie remembered that vampires usually had accelerated healing, so minor wounds such as the men had sustained should be healing up soon or even almost fully healed already. So, she was wondering why Zolan was worrying over Luc's injuries. Was there something wrong with Luc?

"It's alright, princess." Zolan said, "his wound is just taking a little longer than normal to heal. It seems that the orc's horn was laced with some sort of poison. But he's alright, the wound is already healing. I'm guessing the poison is something that is not too potent. Luc just needs a little more time to rest to and he should be as good as new."

Luc looked up at Evie and grinned energetically. "I'm very fine princess, no worries. This is actually nothing at all compared to my wounds when we went against a dragon back then."

"How about you go soak in the waters of the river?" Evie suggested as she looked at the glistening stream. "I believe my husband already told you about the healing powers of the waters flowing here, right?" Evie queried them.

Both the vampires creased their brows. "Yes, His Highness did tell us and that's why we always rush our wounded comrades towards that magical lake before leaving this land. But only that magical lake, though…"

"You mean this water can't be used to heal?" Evie asked, surprised.

"Unfortunately, you're right princess. We thought it could heal as the water is exactly the same as the one in that lake. But strangely, it doesn't work the same as the lake water." Zolan shrugged his shoulders.

Zolan's explanation made Evie stare at the glimmering water with intrigue and wonder flashing in her eyes.

"Nonetheless, you still need to go and wash the wound with the running water, Luc." She heard Zolan said, "You need to wash out all of the poison for the wound to heal properly and as fast as possible."

The wounded vampire immediately rose and took his upper clothes off. Then he sat in the water. Since the stream was quite shallow, the water only reached his waist despite him already sitting down. He had to lean down for the water to be able to reach the large wound on his upper abdomen.

Curious, Evie followed Zolan and she stood next to him while they looked at Luc.

Luc was suddenly flustered. He was not expecting the princess to follow along to the stream as well. He was not usually a shy man, but he wondered if it was okay for him to strip and be half-naked before the princess. That could not be a proper thing to do before a princess, right? And to top it off, she was his prince's beloved wife…

When he suddenly realized that the princess was staring intently at his torso, he nearly turned around in a panic. He barely managed to keep himself still, even though he knew full well that she was only staring at his wound.

"Er… princess… you can go back and take a rest in your tent for a while waiting for your supper. Leave this man to me," Zolan said. Somehow, he too, found that it was not quite right for the princess to be looking at a scene such as this. Though there was basically nothing wrong with it, however, if their prince was here… Zolan was more than a hundred percent certain that the prince would probably cover her eyes or distract her just so she would not be looking at another man's half-naked body.

"You're really not feeling anything? Do you feel any better upon soaking in the waters?" Evie asked Luc, as if she did not hear Zolan's statement earlier.

Luc simply shook his head. Too embarrassed to reply to the princess' questions.

Evie squatted on the ground and stared at the glimmering water. "That's strange," she murmured, "why would this water not work when it's literally the same water? They both come from the same source. Is it because that lake was the only special place here and that's why the beasts couldn't go in it as well? Meaning, it wasn't the water that was magical but that particular spot itself?"

Suddenly, she reached out and swirled her fingers in the water as she absentmindedly continued wondering.

The two vampires' eyes widened in shock when the silvery glimmers in the water slowly changed into a golden amber hue.

They could not utter a word for a long while, until Luc sprang from the water in surprise. "It's gone!!" he exclaimed, holding out his arms and looking down at this upper torso.

Zolan and Evie looked at him and both of them were surprised as well, seeing that Luc's wound was really gone as he had said.

"T-this is incredible! The pain is gone too, completely…" Luc stammered, "and I feel quite revitalized!"

Evie blinked as the two vampires looked at her with their eyes filled with nothing but wonder and amazement.

"I think the water does heals after all?" Evie mumbled in a question more to herself than to Zolan or Luc.

"I don't think so, Princess… It could be what you just did with the water earlier was the thing that truly healed him!" Zolan was very certain. "There is no doubt about it!"

Evie blinked and she then pulled her hand out of the water, and it quickly went back to its normal state again. She stared at her hands. Why did that happen? Her curiosity about herself was growing. She wanted to know why all these things were happening. Why she was able to do these things? There were so many questions that keep piling up but no one to give her the answers to it. This made her all the more determined to reach that place that promised to grant her all the answers to her questions.